SAVE YOUR FOOD CAMPAIGN
REDUCING FOOD WASTE THROUGH OUTREACH IN FORT COLLINS, COLORADO
2017 COMMUNITY SUSTAINABILITY WORKSHOP
Suleiman M. Abdulkhaleq, Brittany N. Escobedo & Johanna Zapata COLORADO STATE UNIVERSITY
Save Your Food Campaign Reducing Food Waste Through Outreach in Fort Collins, Colorado Prepared by: Suleiman M. Abdulkhaleq Brittany N. Escobedo Johanna Zapata 2017 CSU Community Sustainability Fellows Prepared for: Megan DeMasters and Honore Depew
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Acknowledgements We would like to say a quick thanks to those who have helped us throughout the semester to help create this final product. A special thanks will be given to our clients, Megan DeMasters and Honore Depew. Without them, working on the problem of food waste through a local campaign “Save Your Food” wouldn’t have been possible. We would not have been part of this great opportunity and learned so much about this problem that still sits in the shadows. Another thanks will be given to our instructors in the Summer 2017 Community Sustainability Workshop: Katie Haggstrom, Paul Hellmund, and Kristie Yelinek. They have given us the unique
opportunity to be able to participate within this course and to get hands-on experience of what the real world looks like. Through their countless hours spent reading our papers and giving us constant feedback over the eight weeks, we were able to shine through with our final products and actually make a difference within the community. A final thanks to the rest of our classmates. Without them giving us additional feedback, making peer edits, and being able to bounce ideas off of them it would have been a lot harder to make the progress we did on our topic. They gave us insight on how others outside of the project viewed the information and as to whether or not we need to be more specific.
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Executive Summary Residential food waste continues to be a growing problem both nationally and across the Fort Collins community. In an effort to address this problem, the City of Fort Collins recently launched the “Save Your Food” Campaign, an outreach campaign to raise awareness about residential food waste. A group of three Colorado State University students in the Community Sustainability Workshop partnered with the City of Fort Collins to help tackle this commonly unknown problem within the community. There were two different clients: Megan DeMasters, who works in the Waste Reduction and Recycling Program, and Honore Depew, an Environmental Planner in the Environmental Services Department. Over the course of the project, the team created a website and infographic posters that contained the important information to be distributed amongst the community. The client’s prior knowledge with previous outreach efforts informed them that communicating with the monolingual Spanish speaking population tends to be a common obstacle. That gave this team the first main group to focus on: Spanish speakers. Following the first few weeks of the semester, the team came across another ideal group to target: the off-campus students. While in the process of preparing the final project, the teamed expanded their networking to community organizations with related missions. Information was gathered about these groups, information that would determine and shape how the educational material would be presented to the two focus groups. More information was obtained by performing a focus group with off-campus students. The team also translated the campaign infographics and website to help make the information more accessible to
Spanish speakers and created an outline of how information could interest off-campus students. Overall, this project aims to create resilience within the community through ecology, economy, and social equity by reducing food waste. By achieving each of these, sustainability can be achieved within the Fort Collins community.
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Contents Introduction ........................................................................................................................................................... 6 Process .................................................................................................................................................................. 8 Networking with Community Organizations ........................................................................................................ 8 Translated Products ............................................................................................................................................... 9 Translated Website.............................................................................................................................................. 10 Translated Infographic ........................................................................................................................................ 12 Off-Campus Student Focus Group ...................................................................................................................... 15 Mock-up of Student Handbook Input ................................................................................................................. 16 Recommendations ............................................................................................................................................... 22 Conclusion .......................................................................................................................................................... 23 References ........................................................................................................................................................... 24 Appendix A ......................................................................................................................................................... 26 Appendix B ......................................................................................................................................................... 31
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Introduction
Food webpage, “across the US, as much as 40 percent of all food grown ends up being wasted,” which is a
Within the college town of Fort Collins, shown in
staggering number that opens people's eyes to the
the below map, many young millennials are striving to
problem. If that alone wasn’t eye-opening enough, the
make a difference in the world. Some of their actions
same source also stated that “23 percent of what residents
range from simple tasks that might help someone in need
in Fort Collins throw away is food waste.”
all the way to focusing on bigger problems that affect the whole world. Within the Community Sustainability Workshop, offered at Colorado State University during the Summer of 2017, students were given the opportunity to make an impact within the Fort Collins community. The team partnered with the Waste Reduction and Recycling team of Fort Collins to address food wastage through their local campaign, “Save Your Food.” This local campaign was made to raise awareness of food wastage and to educate the Fort Collins population through infographics and a website. The campaign launched in the Spring of 2017, focusing
Egg shells are an example of food scraps, not food waste. They are parts of food that typically aren't eaten.
primarily on Fort Collins residents, to reduce household food waste within the community. The project team looked at two primary audiences which included the
It is important to explain the difference between
monolingual Spanish speaking population and off-campus
food scraps and food waste to give a clear understanding
Colorado State University students. The reasoning
of this campaign. Food scraps are the parts of food that
behind why the project only targeted a smaller group of
typically aren’t eaten and do not count as food waste. For
people was to build up momentum and achieve a good
example, these can be seen as egg shells (shown above),
starting place.
banana peels, watermelon rinds, or anything of the like. Food waste is defined as food that could have been prevented from being thrown out. For example, this can include slightly bruised or misshapen foods, unfinished leftovers, or food that has gone bad due to not being consumed in time. To give an analogy for what this information means, say that every time you go to the grocery store you bring home exactly four bags of groceries. The very first thing you do after walking through your door is
A map of Fort Collins. https://goo.gl/maps/KysUaTYDmM22
throw away one of those bags. That is the amount of food waste that comes from the residential population of Fort
One of the biggest factors with this campaign is
Collins.
the fact that the citizens of Fort Collins are unaware that
With this problem comes some major
wasting food is a problem with various negative
consequences that have a big effect long term on the
impacts. As stated on the City of Fort Collins Save Your 6
A picture of what a landfill looks like.
overall community and planet. The three main problems include financial loss, an increase in greenhouse gas
The two primary groups that the team focused on
production, and water loss. As mentioned on the Save
over this project included off-campus Colorado State
Your Food webpage, “a family of four loses
University students and the monolingual Spanish
approximately $1,500 a year” through wasted food which
speaking population within Fort Collins. The reasoning
could be a big financial burden for families that are
behind the focus on off-campus students is that they were
already finding money harder to come by. The website
easy to reach given the project team’s individual
also talks about greenhouse gases; the food waste that
backgrounds. Fort Collins is a college-based town so
goes to landfills (see picture above) “emit as much
contacting some off-campus students became a focus for
greenhouse gases per year as 1,750 passenger vehicles,”
the campaign since they do contribute to the problem and
which takes a huge tole on the environment. Finally, with
by starting to educate them, they could progress towards
water loss, there is a large sum of water used to produce
reducing food wastage. With the Spanish speaking
only one pound of food which includes the following:
population, it is the second most common language in
growing crops or watering livestock, cleaning the food,
Fort Collins so addressing some of the existing language
and keeping the food fresh as well. For example, “one
barriers will make the information more accessible to that
pound of apples takes about 100 gallons of water and one
population.
pound of beef takes about 1,800 gallons of water” (Save Your Food). This supports the desire to minimize food waste for the well-being of everyone and the world. 7
Process Throughout the project, multiple steps were taken to achieve the desired goals. As can be seen in the included flow chart to the right, step one of the project was to learn more about the problem the community of Fort Collins was facing through frequent meetings with the clients. During this time, final goals and other
products were discussed. With the information learned through meetings, the next step was to
The process carried out during the term.
gather additional research to help create a solid base of information. This portion gave
base is a good way to start. The team contacted both on
more insight on Spanish speaking populations and off-
and off campus organizations within the city. Looking
campus Colorado State University students.
for the organizations occurred in three different ways.
Steps three and four on the flow chart, translating
The first way that was used to find some off-campus
material and reaching out to the community, were carried
organizations was through a Google search. This gave a
out at the same time to complete the larger portion of the
wider range of places, such as cooking classes, that could
project. A bilingual team member helped translate the
easily incorporate the campaign information. Following
infographics and website, making the campaign
that, the university's website RAMlink was used to find
information more accessible to a wider audience.
relevant campus organizations, including a description of
Networking, the basis of step four, was done through
what each of the groups were and the contact information
research and contact with different organizations within
to get ahold of a specific group or ask them any
Fort Collins.
questions. The third way to find these groups was
For step five, a focus group was performed to
through recommendations from the city and the workshop
find out more about what messages resonate with off-
instructors. These groups had a certain amount of
campus students the most. By carrying this out,
relevance and could be beneficial to the campaign’s
information on how much they knew about food waste
progress.
was revealed. For the final step, this report was made to
While searching for organizations, a few criteria
sum up the work that has been carried out and where this
were used as general guidelines. The first set of criteria
project could go afterwards.
was that they had to be within Fort Collins, active in the community, or at least active with a sizeable group of
Networking With Community
people within the community. The second criteria was that they had to be interested in food, the environment, or
Organizations
have a concern with climate change. For the final criteria,
Networking was an important factor for this
they had to be a group heavy on volunteer work, reaching
campaign, and since it had recently started, creating a
out to the student population or active within the Spanish 8
speaking community. Some of the organizations met
•
The Student Sustainability Center at CSU
more than one criteria, which was great to find. Even with the lenient criteria used, it narrowed down the list of
Translated Products
possible organizations to find the best fits.
On the Save Your Food website, there is a vast
After the search, a list of nineteen different
amount of information about the “Save Your Food”
organizations was created, along with their individual
Campaign. It specifically touches on how Fort Collins is
contact information. Specific contact information on each
being affected by the amount of residential food waste
of the nineteen groups can be found in Appendix
that is accumulating in landfills. The website also
A. Fourteen of the contacts had an e-mail address listed,
contains a lot of interesting statistics that helps show how
making it the ideal way of contacting the organizations.
massive of a problem food waste really is. The website is
The rest had only phone numbers, making it harder to
very helpful since it also gives smart action ideas on how
keep records of what was stated and contact them due to
you can reduce food waste: smart shopping ideas, smart
the time restraints. The team then proceeded to contact
storage ideas, smart prep ideas and smart saving ideas.
sixteen of the nineteen groups via e-mail or phone call. A
The infographic there has snippets of smart actions,
record of who contacted whom, what day, and how can be
statistics, graphics, and facts which capture the audience's
found in Appendix A, along with the e-mail that was sent
eye.
to the organizations contacted and the most updated
After doing some research, it was discovered that
responses given by three of the groups.
Spanish is the second most predominant spoken language in Fort Collins, as can be seen in the graph
Examples of Organizations: •
Defend Our Future
•
La Familia
•
The Paper Bag Crew in Fort Collins
below. Having translated products provides equitable
access to the information, making it important to reach out to the Spanish speaking community since it is a large population in Fort Collins. It was important to translate these products into Spanish so that those who don’t speak English could access the information from the Save Your Food website. The following pages
show the team’s Spanish translations of the City’s “Save Your Food” website and infographic.
http://www.towncharts.com/Colorado/Demographics/Fort-Collins-city-CO-Demographics-
Above is a chart showing the language demographics of Fort Collins. Spanish is the second most spoken language in Fort Collins. 9
Translated Website Spanish Version
English Version
Save Your Food
Salve Sus Alimentos
In Fort Collins, food waste makes up approximately 23 percent of what residents throw in their trash. It’s not just banana peels or chicken bones – often it’s whole foods and ingredients that get tossed without being consumed.
En Fort Collins, los desperdicios de alimentos representan aproximadamente el 23 por ciento de lo que los residentes tiran a la basura. No se trata sólo de cáscaras de plátano o huesos de pollo – frecuentemente los alimentos enteros y ingredientes se tiran sin ser consumidos.
The average household throws away one-quarter of all the food they buy – that’s like walking in the door with four grocery bags and dropping one straight into the trash each time you shop! Across the US, as much as 40 percent of all food grown ends up being wasted. All that food waste comes at a cost – when you save your food, you also save money, water, and greenhouse gas emissions.
El hogar promedio tira una cuarta parte de toda la comida que compran – eso es como caminar por la puerta con cuatro bolsas del supermercado y tirar una directamente a la basura cada vez que va de compras! A través de los Estados Unidos, tanto como el 40 por ciento de toda la comida crecida termina siendo desperdiciada. Todo el desperdicio de alimentos viene con un precio – cuando usted salva su comida, también ahorra dinero, agua y emisiones de gases de efecto invernadero.
How Much Can We Save?
¿Cuánto podemos ahorrar?
Food waste adds up:
El Desperdicio del Alimento se Acumula:
•
Money: A family of four loses approximately $1,500 a year in wasted food. That would pay for the same family to make 26 trips to the movie theater – including popcorn and soda!
•
Greenhouse Gas: Food scraps decomposing in landfills are a major contributor to area greenhouse gas emissions -- emitting as much GHG per year as 1,750 passenger vehicles.
•
Water: Throwing away food also wastes the water it took to produce it, and it takes a lot of water to produce one pound of food: • Tomatoes: 26 gallons • Lettuce: 98 gallons • Apples: 100 gallons • Chicken: 500 gallons • Beef: 1,800 gallons – that’s equal to nearly a month’s water use of an average Fort Collins resident.
• Dinero: ¡Una familia de cuatro pierde aproximadamente $1,500 al año en alimentos desperdiciados. Eso pagaría por la misma familia de hacer 26 viajes a la sala de cine, incluyendo palomitas y soda! • Gases de Efecto Invernadero: Los restos de comida en descomposición en los vertederos son una gran contribución a las emisiones de gases de efecto invernadero -- emiten tantos gases de efecto invernadero por año como 1,750 vehículos de pasajeros. • Agua: Tirar la comida también desecha el agua que se necesita para producirla, y se necesita mucha agua para producir una libra de comida: -Tomates: 26 galones -Lechuga: 98 galones -Manzanas: 100 galones -Pollo: 500 galones -Carne de res: 1,800 galones - que es igual a casi un mes de uso de agua de un residente promedio de Fort Collins
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Translated Website English Version
Spanish version
How to Save Your Food
Cómo salvar su comida
Smart Shopping:
Compras inteligentes: • Planifique sus comidas, haga una lista y compre sólo lo que necesita.
•
Plan your meals, make a list, and buy only what you need. • Perfection is overrated – misshapen produce still tastes good! • Expiration Dates: know the difference between sell-by, use-by, best-by. Smart Storage:
• • • •
Learn how to store foods to keep them fresher, longer. Avocados, tomatoes, and most fruits and veggies do best in the fridge. Bananas, mangoes, potatoes and onions prefer the countertop. Freeze leftover bread, herbs, or sliced fruits and veggies to use later.
• ¡La perfección es sobrevalorada - los productos maltratados todavía saben bien! • Fechas de vencimiento: conozca la diferencia entre la fecha límite de venta, usar hasta, y fecha de consumo preferente. Almacenamiento Inteligente: • Aprenda a guardar los alimentos para mantenerlos frescos, más tiempo. • Los aguacates, los tomates, y la mayoría de las frutas y verduras se guardan mejor en el refrigerador. • Los plátanos, mangos, papas y cebollas prefieren la formica. • Congele el pan sobrante, las hierbas o las frutas y verduras rebanadas para usarlas más tarde.
Smart Prep:
•
Prep your food after shopping – wash, dry, slice and dice so everything’s ready to cook on a busy weeknight.
Smart Savings:
• •
Preparación inteligente • Prepare su comida después de ir de compras - lave, seque, y corte los productos para que todo esté listo para cocinar en una noche ocupada. Ahorros inteligentes • Coma lo que compre - incluyendo las sobras. • Sea creativo y pruebe nuevas recetas para usar la comida antes de que se eche a perder.
Eat what you buy – including leftovers. Get creative and try new recipes to use up food before it spoils.
¿Quiere más consejos para ahorrar alimentos? Visite savethefood.org
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Translated Infographic English Version
Spanish Version
An average U.S. household throws away one-quarter of all the food they buy – imagine walking in the door with four grocery bags and dropping one in the trash each time you shop!
Un hogar promedio de los Estados Unidos tiran una cuarta parte de todos los alimentos que compran – imaginan caminar por la puerta con cuatro bolsas del supermercado y tirar una directamente a la basura cada vez que va de compras!
23% of the trash from Fort Collins households is wasted food.
Los desperdicios de alimentos representan aproximadamente el 23 por ciento de lo que los residentes tiran a la basura.
40 por ciento de toda la comida crecida en Los Estados Unidos, termina siendo desperdiciada.
40% of all food grown in the United States is wasted.
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Translated Infographic English Version
Spanish Version
It takes a lot of water to produce food: • •
toma mucha agua para producir comida:
1lb. Tomatoes = 26 gallons
•
1lb. Beef = 1,800 gallons – that’s as much as an average Fort Collins resident uses in nearly a month!
A family of four wastes approximately $1,500 a year on food that is thrown away – enough for 26 family trips to the movies, including snacks!
1lb. Tomatoes = 26 galones
• 1lb. Carne de res = 1,800 Galones – ¡que es igual a casi un mes de uso de agua de un residente promedio de Fort Collins!
Una familia de cuatro pierde aproximadamente $1,500 al año en alimentos desperdiciados – eso pagaría por la misma familia de hacer 26 viajes a la sala de cine, incluyendo palomitas y soda!
Smart Shopping: Plan your meals, make a list, and buy only what you need.
Compras inteligentes: Planifique sus comidas, haga una lista y compre sólo lo que necesita
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Translated Infographic
English Version
Spanish Version
Almacenamiento Inteligente: Aprenda a guardar los alimentos para mantenerlos frescos, más tiempo. Smart Storage: Learn how to store foods to keep them fresher, longer.
Smart Prep: Prep your food after shopping – wash, dry, slice and dice so everything’s ready to cook on a busy weeknight.
Smart Savings: Get creative and try new recipes to use up food before it spoils.
Preparación Inteligente: Prepare su comida después de ir de compras - lave, seque, y corte los productos para que todo esté listo para cocinar en una noche ocupada.
Ahorros Inteligentes: Sea creativo y pruebe nuevas recetas para usar la comida antes de que se eche a perder.
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Off-Campus Student Focus Group
might be encouraged to buy less food and more organic food, thereby improving their personal health and
Focus groups are an effective way to gather data
reducing food waste.
on important issues like food waste and can illuminate
Interestingly, the amount of water wasted in food
low awareness of this issue. At Colorado State University,
production was often questioned by the focus group.
there are 4,901 off-campus students (Schneider, Jennifer,
When informed about how much water is used to make a
personal communication). This focus group method was
pound of food (for example, 1,800 gallons of water are
designed to see how aware off-campus students are
used to produce one pound of beef), they were shocked
regarding their personal food waste and whether they
and proceeded to question the credibility of these
would be interested in investigating the issue at a
statistics. Therefore, stressing this impact and acquiring
microscopic level.
more sources on this topic could make these statistics
A focus group was conducted by asking fifteen
much more believable. Visuals are also a way to aid this
questions to ten off-campus participants, eight of who had
information since water waste is a difficult concept to
been living off campus for about two years and two
fathom.
moving off campus this coming fall. These students
In the focus group, a discussion about greenhouse
majored in environmental sciences, mechanical
gases began, followed by some relevant facts. The
engineering, or computer science. The study revealed that
environmental impacts that would occur with this food
these food waste concepts were largely foreign to the ten
waste were rated as fairly important to those people who
participants. They never fathomed that food waste was an
studied environmental sciences but less important to those
issue in the Fort Collins community until asked about it
who were pursuing degrees in other fields. The
during the focus group.
participants who study environmental sciences said that,
One of the first discussions was about how the
following the focus group, they planned to make a
participants purchased their food on a weekly basis. Some
conscious effort to reduce their own food waste and be
purchased everything they needed for the week in one
proactive about reducing their own contributions to
trip, claiming that busy schedules prevented them from
climate change. In contrast, the participants who did not
making multiple trips to the store during a single week.
study environmental science did not show any clear signs
Others thought that they would not eat all of the food,
that they would start paying attention to the issue and try
resulting in purchasing less in a single trip. Additionally,
to make a difference in their daily lives. Clearly, more
many people over-purchase food supplies if they go
effort should be put into reaching out to non-
shopping while they are hungry. However, a few of the
environmental sciences majors, perhaps by targeting
participants did mention that they do eat all of their food
events for clubs of other majors.
by the end of the week because they tend to purchase
The best way for this project to continue is to
organic food, which is often more expensive.
educate more people about the issues at hand. Moreover,
These participants might attach a lot of value to
students ought to be educated on food waste before
the food and see it as an investment in themselves to help
entering college so that reducing food waste becomes a
live a healthier lifestyle instead of purchasing cheap and
part of their lifestyle at a young age. Finally, it is crucial
unhealthy food that could potentially lead to more
to try to convince more people to invest in their food
medical bills as they age. Further, by purchasing organic,
supplies and purchase food in smaller amounts. If these
more expensive food, larger amounts of food would be
items can be accomplished, surely food waste will be
purchased less often, preventing food from going
reduced in Fort Collins.
bad. Considering these findings, off-campus students 15
Proposed Information for Colorado State University Off-Campus Student Handbook
The following five pages illustrate a way of presenting pertinent information about food waste to off-campus CSU students. This brochure is to be included in the off-campus handbook given to each CSU student who chooses to live off-campus during their time as a student.
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https://deavita.fr/regime-alimentaire/renforcer-systeme-immunitaire-jeune/
SAVE YOUR FOOD Supporting outreach through the community
All content is from Save Your Food For more information, visit: https://www.fcgov.com/recycling/saveyourfood.php 17
Save your Food
In Fort Collins, food waste makes up approximately 23 percent of what residents throw in their trash. It’s not just banana peels or chicken bones – often it’s whole foods and ingredients that get tossed without being consumed. The average household throws away one-quarter of all the food they buy – that’s like walking in the door with four grocery bags and dropping one straight into the trash each time you shop! Across the US, as much as 40 percent of all food grown ends up being wasted. All that food waste comes at a cost – when you save your food, you also save money, water, and greenhouse gas emissions
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Save Your Food Campaign
Connect with Students As college students you are aware of how scarce money is and how important it is to save money. You also know how expensive it can be to live off campus and pay for tuition. “Save Your Food” Campaign gives you smart ideas to save money. You’ll not only be saving money, but you will also be helping reduce greenhouse gas emission and water wastage.
Major Impacts of Food Waste • Money: A family of four loses approximately $1,500 a year in wasted food. That would pay for the same family to make 26 trips to the movie theater-including popcorn and soda!
• http:// blogs.mcall.com/.a/6a00d8341c4fe3 53ef0147e233487c970b-popup
Greenhouse Gas: Food scraps decomposing in landfills are a major contributor to area greenhouse gas emission-emitting as much GHG per year as 1,750 passenger vehicles
•
Water: Throwing away food also wastes the water it took to produce it, and it takes a lot of water to produce one pound of food: -Tomatoes: 26 gallons http://clipart-library.com/greenhouse-Lettuce:98 gallons -Apples:100 -Chicken: 500 gallons -Beef: 1,800 gallons– that’s equal to nearly a month’s water use of an average Fort Collins resident
http://www.clipartpanda.com/categories/ water-faucet-clipart-black-and-white
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Smart Actions Shopping:
•
Plan your meals, make a list, and buy only what you need.
•
Perfection is overrated – misshapen produce still tastes good!
•
Expiration Dates: know the difference between sell-by, use-by, best-by.
Smart Storage:
•
•
Learn how to store foods to keep them fresher, longer.
•
Avocados, tomatoes, and most fruits and veggies do best in the fridge.
•
Bananas, mangoes, potatoes and onions prefer the countertop.
Freeze leftover bread, herbs, or sliced fruits and veggies to use later.
Smart Prep:
•
Prep your food after shopping – wash, dry, slice and dice so everything’s ready to cook on a busy weeknight.
Smart Savings:
•
Eat what you buy – including leftovers. Get Creative and Try New Recipes to use up food before it spoils.
20
Get Involved
Environmental Policy Awareness Coalition
This is a CSU group that seeks to “affect change through education, information dissemination, and policy advocacy as it relates to domestic environmental issues.� E-mail Address: Kami.Bakken@rams.colostate.edu
Food and Nutrition Club at CSU
A department providing health and wellness education to CSU students, faculty and staff, as well as to residents throughout the state E-mail Address: Emma.Sickles@rams.colostate.edu
A CSU group of students that talk about sustainability and food production and consumption
Mindful Source E-mail Address: Domenic.Digregorio@colostate.edu
A group that wants to change the stigma surrounding homelessness and transient populations while also reducing food insecurity.
The Paper Bag Crew Email Address: Hannah.Cowie@rams.colostate.edu
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Recommendations
campaign continues to ensure that the information given in the campaign can be accessed by the second most
Recommendations of where this project could go
predominately spoken language in the city.
can be found in the chart below. The first step in the
The fourth recommendation is similar to the prior
recommendations would be to organize and conduct more
recommendations, but this facilitates networking in the
focus groups, both for off-campus students and the
community. Continuing to include minority groups will
Spanish speaking population. This will give a better
result in a better standing of social equity, which is a key
sense on how to target these two groups. Being able to
factor in making a community resilient and sustainable.
directly address a smaller group within the community
By continuing to network as well, it makes educating the
would have a stronger impact and get the information
Fort Collins community of the problem much easier.
across.
Finally, the last recommendation would be to
The second recommendation would be to use the
gather data periodically to see if the problem of food
off-campus students’ mockup that has been included in
waste continues to grow or shrink. If this continues to be
this report (pages 17-21). This mockup was created based
a problem that doesn’t show much improvement, chances
off the information gathered from the focus group. The
are that the way of addressing the problem might not be
conclusion that can be made with the focus group is that
sufficient. If food waste does end up shrinking as time
the participants were extremely unaware as to what this
goes by, it shows that the efforts put in were an effective
problem even was and the negative impacts that come
way to educate the Fort Collins community.
along with it. The third recommendation would be to partner up with an organization or hire someone who could continue to translate the different products that the “Save Your Food” campaigns creates into Spanish. By doing this, the
Above is a chart that outlines the recommendations made by this project group.
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Conclusion With all good intentions come some unexpected consequences as long-term effects. This project is meant to help create a resilient community, which in turn will make it sustainable. This can be achieved through concern for the triple bottom line, ecology, economy, and social equity. For ecology, this helps build community resilience by lowering the amount of water lost through production of food and the amount of greenhouse gases produced. With economy, reducing food waste helps individuals and families save money by wasting less and
shopping smart. Finally, with social equity, it lessens the degradation of the environment, making the overall world a healthier place for everyone. This also makes the information from this campaign easier to access for more people, including the Spanish speaking population. Some good and bad outcomes should be considered throughout the entire campaign, how this will affect businesses, families, and other groups. If the campaign is successful in getting people to only buy what they need, grocery stores might find that they start losing money and, in an extreme case, could make smaller grocery stores go out of business. But families and individuals will be able to save more money, making it possible to do other activities that they want to do. Also, if this problem can be reduced as much as possible, current resources can start to focus on other community problems and begin fixing them. Overall, this project is meant to reduce the problem of food waste, but what the long-term effects could be are endless.
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References “Figure 48.” (n.d.). Fort Collins, Colorado Demographics Data. Retrieved From http://www.towncharts.com/ Colorado/Demographics/Fort-Collins-city-CO-Demographics-data.html “Fort Collins, Colorado.” (n.d.). Google Maps. Retrieved From https://goo.gl/maps/KysUaTYDmM22 Save Your Food. (n.d.). Retrieved From https://www.fcgov.com/recycling/saveyourfood.php
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Appendices
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Appendix A The first chart on this page has the contact information for the organizations contacted by the team. This chart includes the basic contact information such as e-mail
Organization
Primary Contact’s Name
E-Mail Address
Climate Reality Project Campus Corps
Maggie Gilman
Maggie.Gilman@rams 9703902325 .colostate.edu
350 at CSU
Sophie McVicker
Sophie.McVicker@ra ms.colostate.edu
Ecosystem Science and Sustainability Club
Tatum Van Tatum.Van_Dam@ra Dam ms.colostate.edu
addresses and phone numbers, if they were able to be found. The chart on the following page is the record of contact for the initial communication. This chart expands more on who contacted whom, in what way, and on what day as well. On the next page, you can find the mockup email that was sent to all of the organizations
Phone Number
314-640-8024
info@thefamilycenter 970-221-1615 fc.org
La Familia El Centro
970-491-5722
Food Bank
970-493-4477
the individual organizations. After the email,
The Cooking Studio
720-839-2417
you can find the e-mail responses that were
Come Back to the Table
970-407-8828
Defend our Future
505-401-7124
contacted via e-mail. Correct information was put into the bolded sections before being sent to
received up until the creation of this publication. Overall, networking was an important part of this campaign. Being able to get information out amongst all of the community was a key to success. Through community organizations, the campaign can take the first step into thriving among the Fort Collins
Environmental Policy Awareness Coalition
Kami Bakken
Kami.Bakken@rams.c olostate.edu
Food and Nutrition Club at CSU
Emma Sickles
Emma.Sickles@rams.c 804-543-5456 olostate.edu
Mindful Source
Domenic Digregorio
Domenic.Digregorio@ 970-988-4274 colostate.edu
Order of the Torch
Ty Fiero
Ty.Fiero@rams.colost ate.edu
Real Food - CSU
William Clem
William.Clem@rams.c 303-888-3158 olostate.edu
Slow Food
Caroline Smith
Caroline.Smith@colos 612-597-4453 tate.edu
Spoon University at
Hillary
Hillary.Lorsch@rams.c 480-276-7469
SLiCE
Hermen Diaz
Hermen.Diaz@colosta 970-491-1682 te.edu
The Paper Bag Crew Hannah in Fort Collins Cowie
Hannah.Cowie@rams. 719-373-7094 colostate.edu
The Student Sustainability Center
E.Taylor@colostate.ed 303-437-6147 u
community.
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Emily Taylor
507-581-9431
720-475-6411
Organization
Contacted Via (E-Mail/ Phone)
Who Contacted Them
When
Climate Reality Project Campus Corps
Johanna
July 17, 2017
350 at CSU
Johanna
July 17, 2017
Ecosystem Science and Sustainability Club
Johanna
July 17, 2017
Willing to promote the local campaign; Concers or conditions
Johanna
July 17, 2017
Yes; they would like to learn more about the campaign and meet with us (refer to e-mails below)
Come Back to the Table Phone
Suleiman
July 18, 2017
No
Defend our Future
Phone
Suleiman
July 17, 2017
Yes; "they would like to meet up with us and find out more about our project" (Ryan, personal communication)
Environmental Policy Awareness Coalition
Johanna
July 17, 2017
Yes; “promote an app or cook book� (refer to email below)
Food and Nutrition Club E-Mail at CSU
Johanna
July 17, 2017
Mindful Source
Brittany
July 17, 2017
Order of the Torch
Brittany
July 17, 2017
Real Food - CSU
Brittany
July 16, 2017
Slow Food
Brittany
July 17, 2017
Spoon University at CSU E-Mail
Brittany
July 16, 2017
SLiCE
Brittany
July 16, 2017
La Familia
El Centro Food Bank The Cooking Studio
The Paper Bag Crew in Fort Collins
The Student Sustainability Center
Brittany
Brittany
July 16, 2017
Yes; Feedback (can be found in e-mail) and "would love to help out in anyway, and are eager to hear more about our campaign" (refer to e-mails below)
July 16, 2017
Yes; They host an event related to nitrogen awareness (mostly with food) that could be something that could be collaborate on (refer to e-mails below)
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Hello (organization/primary contact), Greetings: My name is (provide name) and I am going to be a (1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc...) year student at Colorado State University in the Fall. I am currently enrolled in the Community Sustainability Workshop course, where a small group of students and I developed a project to focus on a specific problem here in Fort Collins - food waste. My group is working with the City of Fort Collins to enhance their community outreach efforts to educate the community on the problem of wasted food and ways to prevent it through a campaign called Save Your Food. The Problem: Almost a quarter of all garbage from Fort Collins residents is food! There are three major community impacts from this problem: money loss, water loss, and an increase in greenhouse gases. The amount of money spent on wasted food annually can easily add up to about $1500 for an average family of four; there are hundreds of gallons of water used, per pound of food, to raise crops and livestock, more than most people realize; and the significant carbon footprint of all that waste is even less visible but just as important. The Request: We are hoping you would be willing to work with us and the City to help promote the message of reducing wasted food across the community and to the members of your organization in particular. This can be achieved through activities and information that you could share throughout the year by simply promoting the posters and other messages found on the Save Your Food website. If you could respond to this e-mail telling us if you are interested in this opportunity or not we would be more than happy to follow up with additional information and contacts at the City. Please feel free to download,
print and distribute the attached infographic poster that has been created for this campaign and to visit the City website about it at www.fcgov.com/SaveYourFood. We would appreciate it if you could provide feedback about what gets your attention the most about the messaging as well as what barriers you see to adopting the ideas presented for saving food. Sincerely, (your name)
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Appendix B The focus group that was conducted with off-campus students addressed the fifteen following questions: •
Have you ever left food in the refrigerator and forgot about it or didn’t use it? Answer: Half of the participants did say that they usually forget about their food supplies in their kitchen and refrigerator. •
Where do you store most of your fruits and vegetables at home? Answer: There were mixed answers; where each participant places their fruits and a vegetable was different. Some put their bananas in the refrigerator but most of the participants did not. •
Do you know how much water is used to raise the food that you buy? Answer: No, they had no idea how much water is used to create the food supplies they have in their kitchen.
•
What is your main reason as to why you throw out your food? Answer: They want to throw anyway their food was because it has expired.
•
Did you know that there are different ways to store your food? Answer: Yes they all knew there are different ways to store their food supplies.
•
Do you research and follow the different recommended ways to storage your food? Answer: No none of them research other way to store their food supplies they reported that they just do it the way their parents did it. •
Do you regularly discard food after preparing a meal? Answer: There were mixed answers; some of the participants said that they do discard their food, some of them store it and forget about it, leaving it in their refrigerator until it goes bad, and some of them do manage to eat it later. •
Do you feel that you over-buy what you need when you go shopping? Answer: Every one of them agreed that whenever they go shopping when they are hungry they do in fact overpurchase food. But this is not the case when they are not hungry. •
Do you feel any burden when you throw out food? Answer: Yes they do feel burden whenever they throw away food because the food was purchased from their money that they have worked for. •
Do you know the amount of money an average family of four loses from food waste? Answer: No, they didn't know how much money is wasted per family of four people per year on food.
•
Do you know what the environmental impacts are that result from food waste? Answer: There were mixed answers; some people said that they don't think that environmental problems are even real and others never even knew that food waste had anything to do with environmental impacts, despite being environmentalists themselves. •
Do you know roughly when the landfill in the Fort Collins area will be full? Answer: No, none of them knew when the landfill will be full.
•
Are you aware of how much food is wasted here in the U.S.? Answer: None of them had any idea of how much food is usually wasted.
•
Are you willing to change your daily life to help reduce food waste? Answer: All of them said yes, especially when they were informed of how much money they were losing by wasting food. •
Do you know roughly how much water is wasted when you throw away a pound of beef? Answers: No, they didn't have a clue of how much water is being wasted on a pound of beef.
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2017 COMMUNITY SUSTAINABILITY WORKSHOP 2017 COMMUNITY SUSTAINABILITY WORKSHOP AT COLORADO STATE UNIVERSITY
The Colorado State University Sustainability Workshop integrates the content of two undergraduate courses in one real-world, problemsolving workshop focused on finding practical and sustainable solutions to community problems. Working together in 2017, interdisciplinary groups of students—most in their first year of study at CSU—and faculty took on projects for Northern Colorado communities, including non-profit organizations and government agencies. Teams of two, three, or four students worked directly with these clients to carry out the projects and write the final reports, which were edited by the workshop coordinators. Workshop Coordinators: Katie Haggstrom (Graduate Teaching Assistant, CSU English Department), Paul Cawood Hellmund (Instructor, CSU School of Global Environmental Sustainability), and Kristie Yelinek, (Instructor, CSU English Department) The 2017 Sustainable Community Fellows are Suleiman Abdulkhaleq, Alex Benitez, Maria Castaneda, Brittany Escobedo, Karina Gonzalez, Silas Harris, Daniela Ornelas, Gia Pizzichini, Jen Platero, Adam Rusch, Monica Solis, Hayden Webb, and Johanna Zapata The workshop is sponsored by three parts of the university: School of Global Environmental Sustainability, English Department, and the Career Center.
A
growing problem within Fort Collins is now in the spotlight: food waste. It has multiple negative impacts that affect everyone. These include a loss of money, a waste of water, an increase in greenhouse gases. Also there’s
a faster rate at which the landfills are being filled up because of wasted food. The problem is being addressed through a local campaign run by the City of Fort Collins, “Save Your Food.” The City has partnered with a group of Colorado State University students from the Community Sustainability Workshop to tackle specific aspects to help make the new campaign succeed. The tasks
community to translating materials to performing a small focus group with offcampus Colorado State University students.
2017 COMMUNITY SUSTAINABILITY WORKSHOP COLORADO STATE UNIVERSITY
The Colorado State University Sustainability Workshop integrates the content of two undergraduate courses in one real-world, problem-solving workshop focused on finding practical and sustainable solutions to community problems. Working together in 2017, interdisciplinary groups of students—most in their first year of study at CSU—and faculty took on projects for Northern Colorado communities, including non-profit organizations and government agencies. The workshop is sponsored by three parts of the university: School of Global Environmental Sustainability, English Department, and the Career Center.
Photo credits. Front and back covers: Pixabay.com
range from networking within the university